So far we've had the official announcement and some words from creative backbone Chris Morgan. Now, with various sources taking the opportunity to collar him for quotes while he's out doing the rounds for Last Stand, Arnold Schwarzenegger has himself begun weighing in on the ideas behind the quickly developing **Legend Of Conan.
Speaking to MTV a few days ago, Arnold claimed that a Conan sequel is a move he's been trying to sell for a while. "I've been hyping it to Universal Studios for quite some time," quoth the once and future Cimmerian. "The audience demands a spectacle. The important thing with a Conan project is to make it into an A-movie that they treat like a 300, or any of those great movies, rather than a B-movie where they hack a few heads off, a few limbs off, and run around with a sword." Hmm, is that a bit of a crack at the 2011 Marcus Nispel version?
Harry Knowles at AICN got more of the same, but slightly expanded. "Universal came forward and said, 'You're absolutely right,'" Arnold continues. "The previous regime had missed the boat here, but [Universal are] going to be serious about it and make a quality film with an A-director and A-writers and so on. We're going to make a film where Conan is at [my] age, so it's totally believable."
Knowles got the proto-scoop that the filmmakers are looking at the Hobbit-y vistas that come with "Peter Jackson's studio in New Zealand" as a possible home, although it sounds far from a done deal at this point. The AICN interview also sees Arnold confirming, as has been suggested before, that Legend Of Conan is on a very fast track, with shooting possibly taking place in the latter part of this year.
MTV, meanwhile, has Arnold teasing that there may be a role for his Last Stand co-star Johnny Knoxville. Subotai? Malak? It's clearly a joke, but it's not impossible...